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Tundra
| minerals_arcanus = None | minerals_myrror = None | change_terrain = No effect | gaia's_blessing = No effect }} Tundra is a type of Terrain in the world of Master of Magic. Tundra completely covers both the southern and northern poles of both Planes, and is also commonly found on the main continents at the extreme northern and southern latitudes. Tundra is barren and unproductive, making it largely unsuitable for nearby colonization. As a result, settlements will mostly be concentrated in less extreme latitudes. Of course, a few Tundra tiles within a town's vicinity can nonetheless be tolerated. Tundra tiles never contain any Minerals. They also may not be targeted by the spell, and are not affected by either. However, in version 1.31, Tundra tiles can be targeted by the spell, and both terraforming spells will then work as normal on the resulting Volcano. Tundra are not too difficult to cross, costing 2 Movement Points for any unit that enters them. Strangely enough, units can cross them for only 1 Movement Point, although as land tiles they are still inaccessible to units. Description A Tundra is essentially a cold desert. It is a place where weather conditions are so extreme, and sunlight so weak and infrequent, that both plantlife and animal life will struggle to survive. Trees do not grow here, and agriculture is completely out of the question. The few animal species that do survive in these regions are usually found in very small numbers, and cannot sustain a growing population of humanoids. As a result, Tundra is considered barren and unworkable. Humanoid settlements within the region will suffer from the inability to extract any useful resources from such terrain. Geography Tundra is the most predictable of all Terrain types. In each and every game, the top-most and bottom-most row of the map on both Arcanus and Myrror is comprised entirely of Tundra tiles. These are the poles, and although units can walk upon them, they are not suitable for any sort of colonization. Tundra tiles will also appear on any continent or island that stretches far enough to the north or south of the Plane it's on. Tundra will generally cover the extreme tips of such continents, possibly interspersed with other terrain. Town Development Tundra is always completely useless for any town established in its vicinity. It does not contribute to the town's Maximum Population, ouput, nor or . Since Tundra never contains any Minerals either, it is often best to avoid building new Settlements in areas covered completely or even mostly by Tundra. A town can stand a few Tundra tiles in its vicinity and still grow to respectable size, but that would require the ample presence of other, high-yield terrain like Rivers and/or Grassland. Maximum Population : Tundra tiles are among the few Terrain types that provide absolutely no bonus to a nearby town's Maximum Population. In other words, if a town were to be surrounded entirely by Tundra tiles, its Maximum Population would be exactly 0. This means that not only will the town not grow at all, but may actually lose a few citizens each turn. Fortunately, negative Population Growth cannot destroy a town (it will never drop below 1,000 population due to negative growth), but it will likely never grow above 1,000 either. This makes Tundra areas extremely unfavourable for settlement. Maximum Population dictates the absolute maximum number of citizens a town can have. Once it reaches this many citizens, it will simply stop growing. This value also influences Population Growth: the larger the gap between a town's current- and Maximum Population, the faster the town grows. Furthermore, Maximum Population also determines how much can be produced in a town before inefficiency sets in. Once this limit of Food production is reached, additional citizens assigned to Farmer duty will produce much less - becoming less efficient. Higher Maximum Population means a higher production efficiency threshold, thus allowing more Farmers to be assigned while still retaining full efficiency. As a result, in a town surrounded by Tundra, only a very small amount of can be produced even if all citizens are set to Farmer duty. It may struggle to produce enough food to feed itself - again resulting in negative Population Growth, and making it difficult to gain more than a few citizens. Common Minerals Tundra tiles never contain any Minerals. This is another reason why constructing towns near Tundra tiles is rarely, if ever, necessary. Movement Tundra may be inhospitable, but it is generally flat, making it not-too-difficult for units to cross it. Such units lose only 2 Movement Points when entering a Tundra tile. units treat Tundra tiles like any other tile. They take only 1 Movement Point to enter it. Similarly, stacks that use , such as units with the Non-Corporeal ability, can enter this tile for their usual 0.5 Movement Points. As land tiles, Tundras are completely impassable to units possessing only a ability. units, however, only pay 1 Movement Point to travel through. Roads and Road Construction As with any land tile, Tundra tiles can be upgraded with a Road. This can be accomplished using Engineers, a type of unit that is only available to certain Races. Constructing a Road through Tundra is fairly difficult. A single unit of Engineers will take 6 turns to build one tile. Each additional unit of Engineers reduces this by about 50% (rounded up): 2 units will take 3 turns, 3 units take 2 turns, and 4 or more units can finish construction in only 1 turn. Additional Engineers (beyond 4) do not speed this up any further. Dwarf Engineers work twice as fast as other Engineers. This means that a single such unit can build a Road in a Tundra tile in only 3 turns, and 2 or more Dwarf Engineers will only take 1 turn to complete construction of a Tundra road. Once a road has been built, the cost to enter this Tundra tile changes to 0.5 for all units, regardless of their movement type. Note however that units still cannot enter this tile, since they cannot move on land. If the road was constructed on Myrror, or affected by the spell, movement costs to enter this tile are completely removed for most units. In other words, and units can enter this tile without spending any movement points at all. However, Non-Corporeal units cannot use this special road, and will still require 0.5 Movement Points to enter the tile. Change Terrain The spell may not be targeted at any Tundra tile. Thus, it cannot change Tundra into any other type of tile. This means that even the most accomplished wizards are advised not to build towns near Tundra areas. On the other hand, does work on Tundra. Considering that Volcanoes do present valid targets for , possessing both of these spells allows for a viable terraforming strategy of Tundra tiles. This can even be used to make the poles of the planes semi-habitable (the Maximum Population of any Town will still be fairly low). Unfortunately both of these spells are of Uncommon rarity, which means that there is no way to ensure the availability of both at the start of a game. Gaia's Blessing has no effect on the Tundra tiles in the vicinity of the enchanted town. However, it does automatically convert Volcanoes to Hills over time, which means it can also be used in combination with , similarly to . Category:Terrain Types